Today I’d like you all to shut up. Yes, I just said shut up. I’d like to open with a flashback from Andrew Klavan from four years ago:

Shut Up.
It’s the main tactic of the Left and has been for some time now. A tactic I and others have dubbed “Shutuppery”. Shutuppery, like most silencing tactics, has its roots in Political Correctness. For those of you not familiar with the story about how Shutuppery was employed on yours truly, let me summarize for you.

I was doxed a few months ago by a group of “democrat recruiters” on Twitter alongside fellow blogger Sister Toldjah. This was done with the express purpose of getting me to shut up. The full details can be reviewed in my article, #Shutuppery and the Drums of War, wherein Stacy McCain came out firing with both barrels in our defense. Twitchy was not far behind in covering the story.

Shutuppery On The Federal Level

Now that you’re up to speed, let’s talk a moment about the move to employ Shutuppery to bloggers in general. I’m talking about the proposed Media Shield Law being floated in the Senate. The law, in essence, would create a rent-seeking class of journalists as the government would be able to pick and choose who qualifies as ‘real reporters’. Not shocking is that this bill is co-sponsored by Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham. Diane Feinstein is also on board as Doug Ross observes:

Senator Diane Feinstein has taken up the fight for truth and liberty, just as she has done for health care and the widespread disarmament of American citizens.

This month Congress has been debating a new media shield law, which according to its authors, aims to protect journalists and bloggers from being forced to testify about their work should their sources or information come into question.

But Diane Feinstein has refused to support the bill, noting that the law would essentially grant this shield privilege to anyone who chooses to share their opinion on the internet (including those pajama sporting bloggers and news aggregators working out of their basements).

But because freedom of speech, as interpreted by Feinstein, is nothing more than a privilege granted to us by her and her ilk in Congress, she has taken steps to ensure that only those journalists sanctioned by the government will be protected by the new shield laws.

Going one step further, Feinstein has outright said she does not believe bloggers to be ‘real reporters’ and seemingly believes the First Amendment does not apply to all citizens. In short, Sen. Feinstein wants to regulate the right to free speech. This is Shutuppery on a breathtaking scale.

Most Shutuppery Transparent Administration Ever

Now consider the lengths to which this administration has gone after those who, according to Schumer and company, would likely be ‘real reporters’. The most transparent administration in history has a chilling record of employing Shutuppery when it comes to the press, including secretly pulling phone records and spying on them. One has to take pause when an administration is actively seeking to silence the media which has so ardently defended them over the last four years.

Indeed, the President himself launched an assault on Bloggers back in October when the government Shut Down ended. In his press conference, Obama employed Shutuppery, stating “all of us need to stop focusing on the lobbyists and the bloggers and the talking heads on radio and the professional activists who profit from conflict…”

This from the man who never lets a good crisis go to waste.

Remember Obama’s verbal attack on bloggers when media shield comes back up and gov’t argues why it should decide who is a “journalist.”

A case to also consider, which hasn’t gotten a lot of attention is that of Jana Winter. It would probably be naive to think there wasn’t any pressure being exerted from higher up on this case. Via Business Insider:

The 16-month saga of Fox News reporter Jana Winter is about to reach its boiling point on Tuesday, when the New York Court of Appeals will decide whether a New York state law protects Winter from revealing confidential sources in her reporting on accused Aurora, Colo., theater shooter James Holmes. On July 25, 2012, Winter wrote an exclusive story that detailed a chilling notebook Holmes mailed to a University of Colorado psychologist that was “full of details about how he was going to kill people.” That came before he allegedly killed 12 people and injured dozens in a shooting during a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” on July 20, 2012.The problem is that the notebook wasn’t intended to be public, and the defense contends that its release is interfering with their ability to get a fair trial. They want her to testify at a hearing that would get to the bottom of who leaked the information in the notebook.Now, the New York Court of Appeals’ decision as to whether Winter will be compelled to testify could have a profound effect on newsgathering and protections for journalists — all in the name of doing their job.

Think about this. A reporter with supposed protections is now being railroaded because authorities couldn’t shake loose her sources on their own. The proposed Media Shield Law would make certain there was no struggle, because if they can already do this to Winter – a credentialed employee of FOX news – they can do it to anyone.

There’s a cottage industry working to label reporting and reporters that they wish to squelch as “controversial.” It’s a clever PR tactic… — Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) December 10, 2013

But as soon as they think you recognize it, they’ll change it up. People are getting paid a lot of money to work on these tactics.

By the way, if you live in Maryland and are a reporter or blogger, starting in 2014 you will need to undergo an extensive background check if you are going to cover the General Assembly. No, not kidding.

In conclusion, I refer back to the opening of this article and political correctness with a quote from Theodore Dalrymple:

“Political correctness is communist propaganda. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.”

It would follow that Shutuppery is tyranny without manners. Anyway, just shut up.

A.P. Dillon (Lady Liberty 1885), is a Conservative minded wife and mother living in the Triangle area of North Carolina. A.P. Dillon founded the blog LadyLiberty1885.com in 2009. After the 2012 election, she added an Instapundit style blog called The ConMom Blog. Mrs. Dillon’s writing can also be found at StopCommonCoreNC.org, WatchdogWireNC and WizBang. Non-political writing projects include science fiction novellas that are, as of yet, unpublished. Her current writing project is a children’s book series.

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About ladyliberty1885

A.P. Dillon resides in the Triangle area of North Carolina and is the founder of LadyLiberty1885.com. Her current and past writing can also be found at Da Tech Guy Blog, StopCommonCoreNC.org, WatchdogWireNC and WizBang.
Her current writing project is a children’s book series.